Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina win qualification matches

Away wins from Romania against Italy (23:22) and from Bosnia and Herzegovina against Estonia (29:26) on Thursday night concluded Round 1 of the Qualification Europe for the World Championship 2015 in Qatar.

In front of 1,700 spectators in Pescara Romania went off to a powerful start and led 4:0 early into the first half.

Italy's head coach Franco Chionchio took the first timeout after only 12 minutes had been played, but it took almost the same time until the changes he implemented started to work.

After 21 minutes Romania were away 10:4, but led by the powerful Demis Radovic, who scored six goals in the entire match, Italy narrowed the gap to just two goals (11:9 in favour of Romania) until half-time.

Italy then fought hard to turn the match around, but Romania stood their groud and constantly kept Italy at bay by two or three goals.

It was only in the match's dying seconds that an Italian double-strike put the score to 22:23, but it was too late for them to keep at least one point in Pescara.

Delic and Prce lead Bosnia and Herzegovina to victory

In Thursday's second match Bosnia and Herzegovina took their first two points en route to the World Championship 2015 by beating Estonia 29:26.

Vedran Delic and Nikola Prce contributed six goals each to the victory that saw the Bosnian team leading 18:13 at half-time.

Dener Jaanima was Estonia's top scorer with seven goals but his skills were not enough to prevent his side from losing this Group 5 encounter.

Only the winners of each of the five qualification groups advance to European play-offs in June next year that will decide which European teams make it to the World Championship 2015.

Round 2 of this qualification phase will be played on 2 and 3 November, Rounds 3 to 6 at the beginning of January.

Handball fans can follow the matches via the EHF live ticker.